Do we need “smart” rings too?

Big tech companies like Samsung and Google are making big bets that smartwatches are part of the future. The idea is that we will do our emailing, phone calls, and texting right from the wrist.

A few upstart tech companies want to move further down to the phalanges — working on smart rings.

One maker known simply as Ring is just about to wrap up a successful Kickstarter campaign, after asking the community for $250,000 and raising over $830,000. NFC Ring is already off and running with their own model, also funded through Kickstarter.

Fin has opened up preorders for its smart rings, due out later this year for $120. Smarty Ring is doing the same, but trying to score style points.

Whether all these models find their way to fingers remains to be seen. We want our computing smaller and out of the way — to get back to life — so a ring is a step in that direction. But, like all wearable technologies, there is a form factor to manage. A big ring looks a little silly.

Not to mention, many of the benefits are moving — being offloaded — to other computing systems. For instance, texting or calling while driving is increasingly done via voice commands to the computer of the car itself, which is connected back to one’s smartphone.

But like most technologies, the answer on their success likely won’t be binary — instead, just be one more niche in the ever growing world of computing.